Sunday, July 3, 2022 – Deputy President William Ruto has opened up about when he almost slapped President Uhuru Kenyatta when they differed politically.
Speaking on Friday when he met a faction of Kikuyu community elders, Ruto revealed that on September 1, 2017, after the Supreme Court under the leadership of former Chief Justice David Maraga, nullified the Jubilee coalition win.
“So, ndiyo huyo… Oh, sasa, hii maneno, sijui nini, mimi sitaki, mimi nataki kuenda Ichaweri, sasa mimi sitaki, wacha tuachane na hii kitu.” (Here is the President and he says he is not keen on taking part in the repeat elections and that he wants to go to Ichaweri (his home village in Kiambu County), that we should abandon this thing.”
“Mimi nikamwangalia, nikamwambia ‘wewe’! Ni vile tu nilikua na heshima, ningemchapa kofi. Ati sisi tuache?” (I looked at him and told him ‘you!’ It’s only that I was being respectful, I would have slapped him. How could we just quit?)
The DP claims to have repeatedly asked President Kenyatta to take a “keen interest” in the Supreme Court petition to avoid being caught off-guard by an adverse judgment.
“I had told the president to take a keen interest… He assured me that he was in charge and everything was fine,” said DP Ruto. “In reality, the door had been left wide open and some people went in and spoilt everything. Isn’t that so?” he posed.
The second in command further claims to have told President Kenyatta that there was no way the ruling Jubilee party could have lost the polls.
“Ati tutoke hapa?’ Hapana, hapana, hapana. Na ni kura tumeshinda? Kwani alikua ametushinda wapi? Tumeshinda wabunge, tumeshinda ma governor, tumeshinda senators wengi—tumefanya hiyo kazi yote. (I told him there was no way we could just quit when we had won the election. We had more MPs, more governors and senators. We had done a lot of work),” Mr. Ruto told the elders.
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